It’s hard not to feel as though schools have ended up at the rough end of government policy when it comes to coping with Covid-19. On Thursday, the joint message to keep schools open, but for our employees to self-isolate with symptoms, was a recipe for skeletal staffing, with nothing much offered as to how school leaders could make that work.
The independent sector is tiny in comparison to the state sector, but we still have around 615,000 pupils in our care. As a head with a disproportionate number of my parents working in London hospitals, I don’t dispute the importance of facilitating these parents’ ability to keep going. Although we are independent and could choose to close at any point, most of us are working to remain open. However, if we are here to support everyone else with their core business, the least we could expect is support with our own.
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So, what could the government do to help? The Association of School and College Leaders’ Geoff Barton has been doing excellent work in voicing the concerns of teachers across the country and HMC are fully behind him in this.
Stop inspections
The first, and easiest thing would be to relax legislation over inspection and say that all routine inspector visits are suspended. ISI, our own inspection body, is accountable to Ofsted so, however sympathetic it may be, it cannot act without Department for Education support. I know the argument is that we should all be compliant all the time, and I would never question that. But, compliance aside, look at the practicalities of hosting an inspection team.
Just when your capacity to cope with supporting your own community is diminished, a team of no doubt slightly embarrassed inspectors is going to turn up needing senior leadership time, admin support, IT support, space to work and catering. Right now, there isn’t much flexibility with any of those and, if we all agree that the purpose of inspection is ultimately to improve the experience of children, then a visit in such circumstances is likely to do the opposite.
Similarly, should I be asked to release members of my senior team in order to inspect someone else’s school when I have no idea what issues might be around the corner in my own? Stopping inspections is an easy win in a situation with few of those.
The impact on exams
Secondly, we could do with some clarity on contingency plans for public exams. The irony of school closure being delayed in order to push the peak of the virus right into the most crucial period of the school year is not lost on our staff. We are working full out now so that we can work even harder later in supporting young people who have been preparing for May and June for almost two years.
I can appreciate that there can be only limited certainty on this issue - limited certainty is something with which we are all learning to live - but it’s a lot to expect of an 18-year-old on whose immediate future this is going to have an impact. What would the government like us to say to them? Are viable options being considered?
Whatever the press and the politicians may say, we are always working with our fellow heads in the state sector and this issue is probably a once in a career experience; we should all be there to help one another.
I hope, therefore, that the government will involve HMC and other independent school associations in their planning, which might include inviting us to their Covid-19 education summit on Monday. There will be good practice to share on both sides. If nothing else, this disease is demonstrating that, whatever divisions we might have imagined between us in the past, we are all in this together now.
Sally-Anne Huang is the headteacher at James Allen’s Girls School
